In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life.

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Product Description

From Amazon

Brat Farrar has been carefully coached to assume the identity of Patrick Ashby, heir to the Ashby fortune who disappeared when he was 13. Just when it seems that Brat will pull off the deception, he discovers the truth about Patrick's disappearance, a dark secret that threatens to tear apart the family and jeopardize Brat's carefully laid plans. Called "the best of its kind" by the New Yorker, Josephine Tey's classic is a tale of unrelenting suspense and tension.

Review

“Josephine Tey enjoys a category to herself, as a virtuoso in the spurious . . . the nature of the deception on this occasion is too good to give away.”— New Statesman--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.

Most helpful customer reviews

Josephine Tey's writing in Brat Farrar is absolutely amazing. The story takes place mostly in England on a breeding farm of a not-quite-aristocratic family and centres around the coming of age of a surviving twin and a masquerading interloper who steps in to steal away his inheritance. Much of the story has to do with horses -- breeding, riding, jumping, and cantering around the beautiful countryside -- and, as with setting out on a ride, the story starts off at a walk and steadily picks up the pace as the characters gain in confidence and the line between a quasi-immoral act runs into an utterly unacceptable, and greater immoral truth. The descriptions of the exhilaration of riding in its various forms -- cow pony, dude ranch, jumper, racer -- is breathtaking and, while I would stop short of calling it a psychological thriller, the main characters do engage in psychological analysis of the interloper who, in turn, is doing the same of them while he walks a tightrope trying not to put a step wrong and possibly undo his unbelievable good fortune.

The Ashby family was shocked eight years earlier with the death of Bill and Nora Ashby in a plane crash which left the 5 children in the care of Bill's sister Bea, and then, shortly thereafter, shocked again with the disappearance and assumed suicide of the oldest, Simon's twin, Patrick. Now, just as plans are underway for celebrating Simon's 21st birthday, Bea is summoned to the offices of Cosset, Thring, and Noble in London with the news that Patrick has reappeared, not having committed suicide after all, but having left behind the intolerable loss and sadness of his parents death.Read more ›

Eight years after young Patrick Ashby's disappearance and presumed suicide, a young man presents himself to the Ashby family lawyers as the long-lost heir--just in time to reclaim the family estate from his slightly younger twin brother Simon on their approaching 21st birthday. He knows intimate details of Patrick's childhood and passes all of the tests devised by the lawyers to reveal an imposter. (The family's dental records in London were apparently destroyed during the war.) Could it be? Has the prodigal son returned home? In a word, no.That's not a spoiler, mind you. You'll learn as much on the back-cover blurb, and chapter 3 reveals the imposter in no uncertain terms as Brat Farrar, a foundling who grew up in an orphanage and spent much of his teen years exploring the American West. By the end of chapter 4, it doesn't take a whole lot of pondering to figure out 90% of what's really going on. It's just a matter of following along to see how it all plays out.I know that sounds boring, but it's rather an enjoyable read. You can look at it as being slow-moving, or as having a leisurely pace. If you take the latter attitude, I think you'll have a better appreciation of the manner in which Tey examines Brat's moral struggles and unfolds the layers of mystery surrounding the Ashby family.**Adapted from a Skullduggery review**

When foundling drifter Brat Farrar is offered the proposition to pose as the aristocratic Ashby family's long-missing heir (whom he strongly resembles), he finds it impossible to resist. What he did not reckon on was the growing attraction to his own "sister" and the veiled enmity of the younger twin "brother," whom he has displaced as the master of the Ashby estate. The author expertly draws the characters so that we always favor the likable Brat, despite his fraudulent part in the scheme. When it becomes obvious that his life is in danger and that there is something decidedly suspicious about the death of the real Patrick Ashby, the suspense builds unrelentingly, keeping the reader's eyes riveted to the book.In addition to the suspense and the excellent characterizations, there is the extremely interesting background of English horse breeding and racing, which the Ashby fortunes are currently built upon.P>Yes, you can see some of the incidents coming ahead of time, but that's the way it is in real life. The author is honest with the reader in letting us know what is developing as the hero himself discovers it. Overall, this is a great read, an excellent novel of suspense.

Brat Farrar has been on my "Must Read" list for so long that I was almost hesitant to pick it up for fear it wouldn't live up to expectations. I shouldn't have worried. This is the kind of book you either read in one sitting or can't wait to get back to once you put it down. Tey weaves a wonderful web of characters and suspicion, turning the reader to face new possibilities in the plot like Brat might turn one of his horses. Brat is - without a doubt - an Ashby; all anyone has to do is look at him to know that. But is he the long-dead Patrick, heir to the Latchetts Estate? Arguing (delightfully) against his own better nature, Brat decides to pass himself off as the eldest son of the family only to suffer waves of guilt over his deception. Each member of the family and his or her reaction to Brat is so clearly drawn it's easy to see them jump off the page, especially Simon, Patrick's slightly younger twin who has just seen his inheritance handed to someone who may be an imposter. Tey mixes in clever little side stories which add flavor to the mystery not to mention a few clues before bringing it all to an almost perfect close. A few loose threads at the end are the only down note. What I enjoyed mostly was that unlike some other Tey mysteries which seem dated, this one has stood the test of time.